I am grateful to these authors for articulating
and providing evidence for the appalling discrimination
underpinning the manufacture of Israel

Sickening racism and ethnic cleansing that is more and more everyday becoming to define Israel.

Israelis work on four main assumptions:

1. If I think I am a favored child of God and superior to all others, I am.

2. If I want something, I know that God is happy for me to take it using force.

3. Should anyone or any group oppose me let them know that I possess the means to wipe them off the face of the world and will not hesitate to use them.

4. If all else fails, the U.S. will come to Israel's rescue and destroy our enemies, no ifs or buts. We pull their strings and they dance!

Given this mindset, the fate of the unfortunate Bedouins and Palestinians and other inhabitants of some Middle East Countries is sealed.

I have a question for the authors of this article

"Can you name any country in the world which allows people to build illegally on government owned land?"

I doubt you can.

The point is that neither the Bedouin, nor anyone else for that matter, has the right to build on government land.

You make it sound as if the Israeli government is about to render thousands of people homeless, which is far from the truth. The Bill, which is still before the Knesset, allows for a generous proportion of land in the desert, for which they will be required to pay the cost of utilities.

Where the Bedouin are squatting now there is no sewerage because it is not a residential area, therefore it is not supplied. The same applies to the building of roads and the installation of utilities.

They have polluted the underground aquifers with their discharge of effluent, which has nowhere to go. They take water from those same aquifers and use solar panels for energy. The Government for years has put all this in the too hard basket for far too long.

The government has built entire towns which they have no interest in living in, because if they do they will have to pay rates, taxes and energy costs.
I have seen one of these beautiful towns which is literally ghost a town.

Why would they want to do that when they have it all free?

Having looked at the Regavim web site, what shame you chose to pick parts that suit your own agenda.

The Bedouin run amok in the Negev. It is wild and lawless, with violent gangs roaming at night. They steal everything that is not tied down. Construction workers working on the road building complain they have to pay 'protection' money to stop the theft of their equipment and building materials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K2HqPS2pUvc#at=30

By the way the Bedouin are not indigenous to the region. They originate in Saudi Arabia. They are Arabic-speaking nomadic peoples who now are scattered in many parts of the Middle East.

A lot of this argument is upside down.
The Jews were there pre Christian era for a long long time.
The area became mixed Christian and Jewish until invaded by Romans and
later Arabs from what is now Saudi Arabia who imposed Islam under
threat of death or slavery.
That started the Crusades and the rest is as they say history

None of this Beduoin bashing addresses
the real complaint of the authors - the distinction
between jews and others beng pursued so purposefully
by political leaders of Israel.
Why then do Australian governments support
Israel ?

@ asho

**None of this Beduoin bashing addresses
the real complaint of the authors - the distinction
between jews and others beng pursued so purposefully
by political leaders of Israel.
Why then do Australian governments support
Israel ?**

Because it isn't true, pure and simple. I urge you to go to Israel for a holiday, you will have your eyes opened and see the truth for what is.
The loony left need a cause and why they choose the only democracy in the ME is anyone's guess

Dear SF,

My god! That is just utterly shameless.

Did you really have the gall to ask "Can you name any country in the world which allows people to build illegally on government owned land?" in defense of Israel's actions?

Forgive me but that is one of the most brazen things I have read in a long time. The Israeli government allows illegal Jewish settlements to be constructed on another peoples land in direct violation of the Geneva Convention, UN resolutions, and International Law!

The word hypocrisy doesn't come within a bull's roar of describing what you have posted.

@ csteele
Israel is not building illegally on land that belongs to anyone else. The Arabs have NEVER claimed any land.

They have refused since 1948 when they choose to go to war rather than accept the decision to partition Palestine between its Jewish and Arab populations.

1967 Israel offered the land in exchange for peace.
The Arab world’s response issued at a summit in Khartoum, was not 1 no, but 3

“No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel."

2000, Camp David offered Arabs a sovereign state with shared control of Jerusalem and billions of dollars in compensation for Arab refugees. Arafat refused and launched the deadly terror war, the Second Intifada.

2008 Olmert offered Abbas a peace agreement that would have guaranteed a Palestinian state in virtually all Judaea, Samaria, Gaza, and part of Jerusalem. Again the Arabs turned down the offer.

Check out UN Resolution 242, which allows Israel to control and use any of the land between the Jordan River and the sea. International Law which says land acquired during a war which was an act of aggression can be retained

There is nothing in Resolution 242 that forbids construction of settlements in Judaea and Samaria by Israel.

Israel is not an “occupier” in Judaea and Samaria.
The word “occupation” is bandied about regularly. The PA/PLO have adopted the idea of Israel as “occupier” as a mantra and much of the world has accepted it. But the facts tell us something else.
Judaea and Samaria were (and still are) unclaimed Mandate land, to which Israel has the strongest claim.

Legally, occupation only occurs when one nation moves into the land of another. But there was no nation legally sovereign in Judaea and Samaria before 1967 — Jordan’s presence there was not legal.

Settlements only occupy 1.7% of Judaea and Samaria. Arab built up areas cover 40% and over 50% is empty. It has always be understood any land which has been used for Israeli housing will be part of any land deal IF the Arabs ever decide to make a deal.

Thanks SF
im told Israel is expensive. What will I find there?
Will i get to understand how the Palestinians
feel about the Prawer Plan?
How do you think they feel?

This is now my last post for 24 hour. Stupid ruling.!!

The Prawer Plan has nothing at all to do with the fictitious Palestinians. It has to do with Bedouin who are illegal squatters. Israel has built amazing towns for them, but they would rather squat illegally and cause massive pollution to the land than pay taxes.

I went to Israel last year for the first time and was on a very tight budget and I am a Coeliac, which makes eating more difficult and it wasn't expensive at all. I was very surprised how cheap the tours were compared to others countries I've been to. I didn't find public transport expensive either.

Where is a contemporary Rabbi Hillel to be found when he is so much needed in our time?

"Do not unto others etc..."

How the C-19th Zionist thinkers right across the board would turn in their graves if they were to see what their visions of the Judenstaat, or whatever other name one wants to call it, have turned into.

How sad it makes me when I reflect upon the early years after the 1967 Six Day War when living there was a constant renewable tonic, confident, alive, just and humanely enlightened, and less given to ministerial misdemeanours, sectarian privilege and disregard of minority rights, this anti-Bedouin legislation being the appalling latest in the series.

Dear SF,

You wrote;

“Israel is not building illegally on land that belongs to anyone else. The Arabs have NEVER claimed any land.”

That is so close to the tripe that David Singer serves up to us on a monotonously regular basis I can only conclude you may well be related, or even the same person?

You insist on referring to the Palestinian people as the 'Arabs'. It is premeditated and designed to strip them of their identity. It is an act that is morally bereft and labels you as an extremist.

You are a determined misrepresenter. For instance you falsely claimed;

“Check out UN Resolution 242, which allows Israel to control and use any of the land between the Jordan River and the sea. International Law which says land acquired during a war which was an act of aggression can be retained”

All the while knowing full well Resolution 242 clearly states “Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” in its preamble and which goes on to demand “Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict”.

The more you try and tell the rest of us that white is black the more you label yourself as a shameless propagandist for the continuing occupation of Palestinian territory by a belligerent and brutal regime.

Cont...

Cont...

I am reminded of Einstein's letter to the New York Times protesting the visit of Begin, the then leader of the Freedom Party which was later absorbed into Likud.

“The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.”
http://rense.com/general59/ein.htm

The movement you and the likes of Mr Singer support should be similarly decried. It is fascist and is determined to disappear a people. Thankfully most of the world is coming to realise just how pernicious and evil it is.

GENUINE ARAB JOKE. (really)

A Bedouin groom was riding home on his camel with his new wife, when the Camel bucked.

"That's one!" Said the Bedouin.

The camel bucked again. "That's two!" Said the Bedouin.

The camel bucked again. This time the Bedouin groom got off his camel, got hold of a large stick, and beat the camel to death.

His new bride commented that what he had just done was not real bright. How the hell were they going to get home now?

"That's one!" cried the Bedouin.